Chapter 7
Skaro. Planet of the Daleks. No matter how hard he tried, how often he killed them, the Daleks kept coming back, and so did their planet. After what had happened in his seventh life the Doctor had dared to hope that Skaro was gone for good, but the first act of the Time War had proven him wrong.
He opened and closed the fingers of his right hand, subconsciously searching for support that wasn't there. Even thinking about what had happened on this planet during the Time War scared him to death, and now it looked like they were stranded here, at least until he got the dematerialisation circuit working again.
He typed a few commands and stared at the monitor, hoping that just this once the universe would be kind. They might have ended up in a time period before Davros began with his clever little genetic experiment. When the results came up he closed his eyes.
"Doctor!" Donna's voice interrupted his thoughts. He winced at her volume and realised only now that he had ignored her for more than two minutes.
"Yes, Donna?" He knew that he sounded distressed, but he simply couldn't muster the energy for anything else.
"What's the problem?"
The Doctor laughed sardonically. His TARDIS was so severely damaged that he could barely feel her in his mind, not to mention that the shielding was down, and they were stuck on the home planet of the most vicious aliens the universe had ever seen. Problem was definitely the wrong expression. Bloody nightmare would be much more accurate.
He couldn't even begin to tell how much he longed for one of Rose's life-saving hugs. He pulled his leather armour even tighter around him and buried his hands in his pockets. His eyes finally met Donna's. "Skaro is the planet of the Daleks. My people fought a war with them, and we lost," he told her, desperately trying to sound matter-of-factly.
"So these people are…"
He interrupted her ruthlessly, every pretence of composure gone. "The Daleks aren't people. They're anything but. They don't have feelings, apart from hate. You can't reason with them and they've got only one objective: Kill every last being in the entire universe that's not like them." He was almost yelling by now. So much about keeping emotions out of this.
Donna staggered back a few steps. "But…"
He knew he was scaring her, but he went on regardless. "There is no 'but', Donna. My entire planet is gone because of them." He took a deep breath to calm himself down. Yelling at Donna wouldn't help. But still… The Daleks had cost him so much, too much. Not only his planet, but ultimately Rose.
Donna was silent for a while. "But what does that mean?" she asked eventually.
"Apart from the fact that they'll kill me on sight?" he asked, the sarcasm back in his voice.
"Well, as you point out repeatedly this is a time machine, right? What if we, I dunno, ended up before they went to war with your people?"
The Doctor shook his head. Unfortunately they were having no such luck. Like Earth, the entire history of this planet was entwined with his, and since his timeline was affected by the Time Lock, so was the timeline of Skaro. That had left a limited number of eras when they could have landed, none of them exactly promising for various reasons. The figures on the monitor had confirmed his worst suspicions.
"Judging by the radiation levels outside, it's been about fifty years since most of this continent suffered the fall-out of a neutron bomb during a war between the two most advanced groups on the planet." Which made it exactly as long since he had failed to prevent the creation of the Daleks, in their timeline, not in his. And he was certainly not going to tell Donna that.
"A neutron bomb? You land us on a planet where we are going die of radiation? Are you insane?"
He really should have anticipated on which part of his statement Donna would focus. "Donna, do you sometimes engage that brain of yours? This is probably the last planet in the entire universe I'd want to set foot on ever again, and you think I landed us here on purpose?" he asked scathingly. He could see that she was getting angrier with every word, but he didn't care. "I was aiming for Cardiff when the TARDIS crashed, in case you hadn't noticed." He buried his hands deeper in his pockets and turned back to the console, a closed-off expression on his face. "I should've known. But I just had to pick another stupid ape…"
"Bloody alien! Don't you dare call me stupid!" she shouted at the top of her voice. "I've got a right to know if I'm gonna die of radiation or not. And if you had that sort of attitude while travelling with Rose I really think she's better off where she is now!"
He turned on his heel, eyes narrowed, and hissed, "Leave Rose out of this, Donna. You've got no idea what you're talking about. And for god's sake, leave me alone."
"Fine," she gave back. "If you really think so, you can drop me on Earth as soon as possible." She gave him a long glance, straightened her shoulders and left the console room without another word.
He watched her go, then buried himself under the console, telling himself that rerouting a couple of connections would reduce the time the diagnostic scan needed to complete. He had always been good at lying to himself. For more than ten minutes he just lay there, stared at the wires and tried to pull himself together. Eventually he heard Donna coming back.
"Here, you great lump," she said, nudging his thigh with her shoe. "Have a cuppa. Not that you deserve it."
He sat up and looked at her warily, but took the mug she was handing him. "You sure you're not going to poison me?" he asked, a forced smile playing around his lips.
"Nah, why would I do that? At least not before you got us off this bloody planet. Besides, Rose would probably kill me if I didn't keep you in one piece." She grinned at him.
"So it's all just self-preservation?"
"Of course. You didn't think I'd pamper you because of your sunny personality, did you?"
This time his grin was a tiny bit more genuine. "Hand me a spanner?"
She looked around in the console room until she discovered the tool and placed it in his hand.
The Doctor deposited the mug on the grating next to him and vanished under the console again, only to reappear moments later. "Donna?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you."
~o~o~o~
Eventually Pete broke the silence that had filled the room after the ultimatum they had just received. "Was that all they transmitted? That doesn't even make sense! Why would a member of our delegation try to kill their leader?"
Emily Livingston, who was responsible for electronic reconnaissance and the IT department, was the first who answered. "I think they're just looking for a reason to invade. Everything else simply doesn't make sense."
Rose knew she only was here because Pete wanted her to be present. Low ranking field agents like her normally had to wait for the general briefing. It would have been wiser to hold back, but she'd never been exactly diplomatic. Rationally she knew she'd get in trouble but she didn't care. Some things were more important. So she blurted out, "That doesn't make sense either."
Eight people faced her. Rose suppressed the urge to fidget under their scrutiny.
"What is she doing here?" Matthew Powell, the head of biological research and xenobiology, asked Pete acridly. It seemed he hadn't even noticed her before, probably because his ego kept getting in his way, Rose thought. "It's bad enough that you give her a job here, but as it looks we're on the brink of an invasion. We really don't need unqualified comments from someone who'd be better off painting her nails!"
"You noticed!" she replied sweetly. "I was wondering if the colour really suited me. What do you think? Oh well, I'll have to change it anyway. Mauve's the colour for impending invasions this season." She grinned at Mickey, who had to cover a laugh with a fake cough. Then she became serious again and faced Pete. "Seriously, this doesn't make sense. Why would they need to manufacture an excuse for an invasion, let alone send a message first?"
"Go on." Pete said, and Terrence Gold sent her an encouraging smile. At least her supervisor didn't think she was just a society girl.
Bloody tabloids. On the very rare occasion she went somewhere else than just to the pub around the corner after work she would find a juicy story of her newest 'escapades' in the papers. Hugging someone meant she had an affair, drinking a glass or two meant she was on a bender and wearing comfortable clothes meant she was pregnant. That logic completely escaped her. And it certainly didn't help that people like Matthew Powell seemed to believe in such reports, especially since they should know better.
"First let's assume that Emily is right and they are using this as an excuse. Why would they do that?" Rose asked the people in the conference room.
"They're aliens," Powell said dismissively. "We don't know what's going on in their head. They don't feel like us."
"If you really think that you've definitely got the wrong job!" It came out as a reflex. Inwardly she winced as soon as she had spoken the words, but she held Powell's gaze evenly. Judging by his glare she had made an enemy. Oh well, couldn't be helped. She just couldn't stand people with that sort of attitude. "From my experience it's mostly just the package that differs, and sometimes not even that. Apart from a few exceptions, and yes, those are including the Cybermen, they're not so different."
"And you would know that because..."
"I've travelled a lot." That was one way to put it. "If they wanted to invade they could have done so without putting us on red alert first."
"Yeah, but why would a member of our delegation try to kill one of them? That doesn't make sense either," Jane reasoned.
"Right. But at the moment we don't know what happened there. It could be just a cultural misunderstanding." That sort of thing happened much more often than she wanted to think about. Just look at those alien tourists last month. They had honestly believed that humans had other people for Christmas dinner instead of a turkey.
"And what do you suggest we should do?" Powell asked condescendingly.
Rose smiled. "We could always ask them what happened."
He looked at her as if he thought that she owned no more than three working brain cells. "Are you serious?" he asked incredulously. Another cough from the other side of the conference room told her that Mickey had to cover yet another laugh. Powell turned his glare at him.
"Matt, you saw the video," Pete said, before anyone else could voice their opinion. "If we don't find a solution quickly we'll have a war on our hands in less than forty-six hours. And this planet, let alone this country, can't afford that. We're still suffering from the aftermath of the Cybermen. At the moment we're not ruling out any possibility, and if it helps us gain information I don't see what's wrong with Rose's suggestion."
"You're only saying that because she's your daughter."
"No, I'm not. I'm supporting Rose because what she said was reasonable." He turned to Terrence. "I want you and Rose to get in contact with the aliens. Find out as much as you can about what happened on their ship. If they let you aboard I also want an assessment of their weaponry, if possible."
Terrence nodded.
"You let her go with him?" Powell jerked his chin in Rose's direction.
This time it was Terrence who answered. "Miss Tyler is a qualified field agent. She wouldn't work for Operatives if she didn't fulfil the requirements. She is fully capable of this task, and she is not xenophobic, which is just as well, because we really can't afford a hostile attitude in this situation. If Pete hadn't assigned her, I would have requested her," he replied coolly.
The director turned his attention to Powell. "Matt, I want you to find out as much about their physiology as possible. If you've got someone who is good at interpreting body language, bring them in, too."
"Oh, finally you acknowledge that I'm here as well. I was already wondering if I was still working for you."
Pete sighed exasperatedly. "Matt, when you for once don't behave like an idiot I actually appreciate your opinion. I'll send you the transmissions, although that's all we've got so far." He turned to Mickey. "I want you and Jake to find out who was a member of this delegation and who assigned them."
Mickey nodded.
"Okay, we'll meet again in two hours. Until then keep me updated."
~o~o~o~
"Parlez? Are you serious?" Terrence asked Rose on their way to Communications.
"It's a bit Pirates of the Caribbean, yes, but they mentioned the Shadow Proclamation in their ultimatum. It's worth a shot, Sir."
He shook his head slightly. "I must be insane to even consider this. But if it helps to get the delegation back unharmed..."
Her boss opened the door to the communications centre and requested a confidential conversation with James Reilly, the head of the department. Ten minutes later they had their own communications console in a soundproof room.
Terrence pressed a button and began to speak. "This is the Torchwood Institute calling the Corrivexian fleet. We request parlez in accordance with the Shadow Proclamation." Static silence followed his words. He waited a few minutes and repeated the message. Nothing.
"Do you think…?" Rose never finished her question. A sudden flash of blinding white light caused her to close her eyes instinctively, and she almost lost her footing. When she opened her eyes again she was staring at a metal wall in an almost empty room, feeling lightheaded. She concentrated on a point on the wall and breathed deeply to shake off the dizziness, then looked around. Terrence was leaning against the wall next to the door, looking slightly disoriented.
"How are you, Sir?" she asked.
"I've been better," her boss said, sounding like she felt.
"I'll never get used to transmat beams." She shook her head to get rid of the remaining cobwebs.
"You've done that before?"
"Yeah. The better the building is shielded, the dizzier I get." She shuddered at the memory of the one that had transported her out of the TARDIS into a lethal version of The Weakest Link.
A few seconds later the door slid open and four heavily armed aliens entered the room, pointing weapons at them. "Lay your weapons down," one of them said in the stilted, over-enunciated tone an automated translation system would produce. He gestured with his gun to emphasise his point.
Terrence nodded at Rose, and she complied. She knew the Doctor wouldn't like that she was wearing a weapon, but it was Torchwood policy for field agents, and she had discovered that she liked the training. The way she had to concentrate on her breathing was almost meditative and cleared her mind. As a result she had become quite good, although she still hoped that she would never have to use her gun in earnest.
Her boss copied her motions and raised his hands. "We request an audience with your leader."
~o~o~o~
Rose wasn't entirely certain but the alien in front of her seemed to be the one they had seen on the second transmission. She guessed that he was probably a high ranking military officer, not the leader of the delegation. They wouldn't risk him a second time.
The Corrivex regarded them for a couple of minutes in silence before he spoke. "I am the commander of this consular ship. You invoked the right of parlez. We will hear you."
Like the alien that had met them earlier, his words sounded as if generated by an automatic translator. Having had the TARDIS translating for her, it always took Rose some time to get used to alien translation programmes. The speech pattern sounded weird, and the risk of unintentional misunderstandings was much higher.
Terrence bowed his head slightly. "We represent the Torchwood Institute. Our government asked us to negotiate the fate of our delegation," he said by means of introduction, but since the Corrivex hadn't given a name he didn't give theirs either. It was part of the Torchwood policy for First Contact, although Rose thought it was rather stupid. But she had promised Pete that she would stick to the rules, and she did. At least most of the time, and only until she came across one that was simply wrong.
The alien stared at Terrence expressionlessly. "There is nothing to negotiate. Their lives are forfeit."
Terrence stared back, without giving any indication that he had acknowledged the commander's words or the meaning behind them. "You asked us to give our consent to the execution of our entire delegation. We respect your laws, but we ask ours to be respected as well." He paused.
The commander nodded slowly. "Go on."
"Before we can give you an answer to your request we would like to review the evidence that led to the verdict against our delegation."
The alien was silent for about half a minute. "Granted."
~o~o~o~
The Corrivex they had met first took them to an empty room. "We will bring the evidence here," he said and left.
Ten minutes later he returned, followed by two other aliens who were carrying boxes and what looked like two sets of advanced video equipment. "These are the recorded statements of the witnesses and surveillance tapes from the conference room," he explained. "If you plug the players into these sockets the translator will convert the statements for you." He showed them how to operate the system and left them alone.
Terrence took a seat and put the first tape with witness statements into the player. "I'll take the statements, you take the CCTV tapes."
Rose was almost forty minutes into the tapes when her breath caught. "Sir, you've got to see this," she said, almost not recognising her voice. He came over, and she played the scene again.
"If I hadn't seen this with my own eyes I wouldn't believe it," Terrence said eventually. "I knew the Vice President was an idiot, but why would he do something like that?"
Rose wasn't convinced. "I dunno, something about this doesn't add up. It just feels wrong. Let me watch it again." She returned to the scene she had bookmarked earlier and played the sequence again. "See?"
"What do you mean?"
"The Vice President. The way he moves… It's almost as if he had to think about every single move. Or as if someone else was directing his motions."
"Maybe he's just nervous," Terrence suggested.
"No, I don't think that's it, Sir. I mean, he's the Vice President. All things considered, this isn't any different from meeting people with a completely different cultural background, and he's met aliens before. Why should he be nervous?"
"But what else could it be? Do you think he has been forced?"
"I don't know. I'm not sure, but it's possible. And that would mean he's innocent." A smile lit up her face. "We could get them back!"
"Rose, I'm not ruling this out, but I think we need more to convince the Corrivex than just your gut feeling. Besides, we don't even know that they would reverse a verdict."
Rose nodded slowly. "What about the witness statements?"
"Nothing yet."
"Can I help you, Sir?"
"Sure."
Rose had only just put a tape into her player when a sound like distant thunder rolled through the ship, and the floor trembled briefly. "What was that?" she asked.
"Sounded like an explosion, a few decks below us," Terrence gave back, getting up. He hadn't even finished the motion when another group of heavily armed Corrivex entered the room.
"You are under arrest," the leader said, pointing a gun at them.
Somehow Rose wasn't surprised.
~o~o~o~
Donna cursed colourfully, and the Doctor looked up from the monitor he had been staring at.
"Something wrong?"
"I missed a step and twisted my ankle."
The Doctor considered her appearance. She was looking as if she was dead on her feet. The crash must have been harder on her than he had thought. "Go to bed, Donna," he said.
She glared at him. "Are you trying to send me away again?"
He glared right back. "You've been injured, and it won't do us any good if you manage to break your neck by falling into a hole in the grating, just because you're too stubborn to go to sleep when you're tired."
"It won't do us any good?" she repeated, a merry twinkle in her eyes. "I thought we were talking about my neck?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Well, I thought the connection was obvious. I'd be the one who'd have to tell your folks. And I don't do families. Besides, what would I do without your tea?"
"Oi! If you think I'm only here to make tea…" she protested, interrupted by a huge yawn.
The Doctor gave her a pointed look.
"Alright, you win," she said, as soon as she had stopped yawning. "I'll go to bed. But no vanishing on me, understood?"
As soon as Donna was gone the Doctor returned his attention to the console. Twenty minutes later he connected the last two wires and pressed a button. The change of a status light told him that the shields were up again, although that didn't solve their other problems.
He leaned against the console, almost trembling with exhaustion. He still needed to repair the dematerialisation circuit and the temporal stabilisers, and according to the diagnosis scan they were lacking Thallium. The TARDIS had detected a source about twenty miles southeast, but one look at the map had told him that just getting there would take him at least one day, and even longer if Donna insisted on tagging along. He somehow doubted that she would stay in the TARDIS willingly, and if he just left her there was no telling where she would end up.
Was it too much to ask for a companion who actually got the entire 'Don't wander off' thing? Sometimes he really missed K-9.
~o~o~o~
The guards led Rose and Terrence to the bridge, where the Corrivexian commander was waiting for them. He glared at them accusatory. "You have caused a bomb explosion in the main engine room that killed seven of our best crewmen and our chief engineer and destroyed our main drive almost completely," he stated.
"No!" Rose protested. "That's not true! Why would we do that? We just want our delegation back unharmed."
"She is right," Terrence added. "We would never do something like this, and certainly not under the pretence of parlez. Despite what you might think we are honourable people, too."
The alien considered them for a long time. "There is truth in your words. I believe you." He had only just finished his sentence when one of the deck aides appeared and whispered something in his ear. His greenish skin paled a few shades and the marks on his head became more prominent. He thought for a moment, and finally seemed to have reached a decision. "The explosion was worse than we thought. We are drifting towards the gravitational field of your planet. In less than two hours we will reach the point of no return."
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Terrence asked.
"There have been many injuries," the captain answered. "Our medical staff could need reinforcements. I do not suppose you know anything about our technology?"
Rose shook her head. "Just a few basics about star ships in general, and I've only just begun my studies in engineering." Helping the Doctor cobble a few cables together while he was trying to build a Delta wave and handing him tools to repair an ancient, sentient time ship that was probably beyond anything this universe had ever seen didn't really count, she thought.
"That is more than some of our remaining techs know. Besides, the laws of physics apply everywhere in the universe. We would appreciate your help."
Rose bowed her head slightly and decided against telling him that the laws of physics were a lot less universal than he thought. Especially when either Time Lord technology or parallel universes were involved.
He waved a deck aide nearer. "Take her to the engine room and tell the acting chief engineer that she has offered to help."
Then he turned his attention towards Terrence who shrugged. "I'm just a soldier, but I've got basic medical training. Put me where you need me."
~o~o~o~
The engine room looked surprisingly Star Trek in Rose's opinion, but then they all did, on every star ship or space station she had ever visited. She had always wondered why that was. Looking around, she realised that she could actually identify which purposes some of the consoles served. The whole 'If we don't fix it, this power plant/star ship/space station is going to explode/crash/fall into the nearest black hole' thing seemed to have rubbed off on her.
The deck aide introduced her to a Corrivex who had more delicate features than those she had seen so far. "Acting chief engineer, this is one of the humans who came aboard today. She says she has knowledge of our technology and has offered to help." He bowed his head and left.
The engineer regarded her for a few seconds. "What do you know about our technology?" The tone of her voice made it immediately clear that she was a female, although there was no obvious difference in appearance, apart from the more delicate bone structure Rose had already noticed.
"About your technology, nothing really, but I've been on a couple of space ships from other species and I know a few basics. Just tell me what you want me to do."
"The explosion destroyed almost every system that controls our main drive. Right now we are only operating on auxiliary engines. We have to restart the main drive before we get drawn too deep into the gravitational field, because otherwise we will not be able to reach escape velocity in time to avoid atmospheric entry." The engineer stared at her intently, emphasising her next words. "This ship was built for deep space exploration, not for atmospheric flight."
Rose understood. A shiver ran down her spine. "The ship would burn up as soon as you enter the atmosphere," she concluded. "What can I do to help?"
"We will restart the engines at the latest possible moment before atmospheric entry, to give us time for repairs. That means we will have to use a different fuel mix, to compensate for the difference in atmospheric pressure. Do you know how to read schematics?"
"Yes." Who would have thought that her attempts to figure out the dimension jumpers would come in handy that quickly?
The engineer handed her a tablet computer. "Our computerised fuel control system is gone, and we do not have the time to replace it. We have to change the configuration manually. I already calculated the correct values, and I want you to recalibrate the system accordingly. That would be on that console." She pointed. "Change the plug-in boards, so they fit the schematics."
Rose looked at the plans carefully, asked a few questions to make sure that she understood, then walked over to the console. She opened the first panel and set to work, systematically switching board after board according to the schematics. She worked slowly, double-checking everything she did, knowing that any mistake could kill them. Almost half an hour later she finally closed the last panel and returned to the engineer.
"Anything else I can do?" she asked.
For more than an hour Rose helped with the repairs, too busy to even notice how time went by. Eventually the small group of crewmen and the other remaining engineers gathered around the acting chief engineer, who told the Corrivex to man the consoles, occasionally shouting commands. Slowly the engine room came to life, the status lights on the consoles lighting up. The low hum of electricity filled the room, although the almost imperceptible vibrations of the engines were still missing.
Having not received a specific task Rose stayed where she was, trying to keep out of the way. She glanced at her watch. Twelve minutes until atmospheric entry.
The acting chief engineer typed a few commands, then her hand hovered above a button for two or three seconds. She took a deep breath and pressed the button.